"Four years and one month ago, Haiti was hit by a massive earthquake," said David Belle, CEO of nonprofit Artists for Peace and Justice , in his opening remarks. "The power of which was equivalent to an atomic bomb." On Thursday night at the Sunset Tower Hotel, stars played dominoes (really!) to benefit the AFPJ to help build schools in Haiti. Partnering with Bovet 1822, Hollywood Domino hosted its seventh annual pre-Oscar gala and tournament, hosted by Paul Haggis , Pascal Raffy, Maria Bello, Jon Hamm , Kevin Jonas and Hollywood Domino founder Daya Fernandez.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jon Hamm's new TV role takes him far from the stylish 1960s Madison Avenue setting of "Mad Men" to a dreary, isolated and bloody hospital in a small Russian village during the 1917 revolution. The backdrop for "A Young Doctor's Notebook," a four-episode series that makes its U.S. debut on Wednesday on the Ovation cable network, is not a typical one for television, and the show does not fit neatly into a particular genre. Hamm said he liked the project for both of those reasons.

NBC has confirmed some personnel changes at "Saturday Night Live" ahead of its 39th season premiere on Sept. 28. Chicago performer Cecily Strong will co-anchor "Weekend Update" alongside Seth Meyers - a move that leaves her poised to take over the slot when Meyers (a former Chicagoan himself and a Northwestern grad) says goodbye to "SNL" in February to take over his own late-night talk show berth on NBC. This is a major jump for Strong, who is starting her second year with the show after a number of years performing with Second City's touring company and locally at iO. And Monday morning, NBC released the names of the six featured players for the new season: North Shore native and AT&T ad star Beck Bennett, Second City alum Michael Patrick O'Brien, John Milhiser, Kyle Mooney, Noel Wells and Brooks Wheelan.

Jon Hamm was on the phone today with reporters to chat about hosting the July 17 ESPYs, starring in the upcoming baseball film "Million Dollar Arm" and sports in general. (And even a little "Mad Men.") Here are some conversational highlights. "As has been patently clear, I am a diehard Cardinals fan, so hopefully I can get some shoutouts (during the show). "It's been my experience through various deals with ESPN through the years as well as 'Saturday Night Live' that athletes are desperate to crack each other up and make fools of themselves at any time â¦ in a positive way. "Unfortunately, my work schedule has prevented me from going to see the last few World Series that my Cardinals have been in. I was watching the pivotal Game 6 with Jay Ferguson (from 'Mad Men')

We're 10 days away from the 2013 Primetime Emmy nominations. Our ongoing final look at the most prominent categories before the reveal brings us to lead actor in a drama. Ability and stability: None of last year's nominees -- Hugh Bonneville, Steve Buscemi, Bryan Cranston, Michael C. Hall, Jon Hamm or defending champ Damian Lewis -- took a step back in 2012-13. You could speculate on whether voter fatigue might set in with the longer-running candidates, such as Hall and Hamm (each with five noms in a row)

Iris Grossman has joined Paradigm as an agent in its talent department. Grossman had been with ICM for more than 20 years, though her tenure was broken up by a stint in the 1990s as a casting exec at TNT. She's also president emeritus of Women in Film and chair of the org's Crystal + Lucy Awards. At Paradigm, she'll work with talent department chief Andrew Ruf. Grossman has repped a slew of TV stars over the course of her career, including Jon Hamm, Mandy Patinkin and Ed O'Neill.

When TV actors go behind the camera, they're not doing it to win an Emmy. With voters having given only the faintest of recognition to such double threats -- the only recent actors-turned-directors to get nommed were "ER" vet Laura Innes for "The West Wing" and Steve Buscemi for "The Sopranos" in 2001 -- actors go behind the camera for mostly creative reasons. John Slattery, who plays Roger Sterling on AMC's acclaimed "Mad Men," was the first actor to go behind the camera on the multiple Emmy-winning series, after getting the OK from showrunner Matthew Weiner to shadow Emmy-winning director Phil Abraham through two episodes.

By Jill Serjeant LOS ANGELES, June 11 (Reuters) - Emmy-winning drama "Mad Men" drew a record 2.7 million viewers for its low-key Season 5 finale, bringing to an end its most watched and most controversial season yet. Cable channel AMC said on Monday that the TV show set in a 1960s New York advertising agency enjoyed its biggest weekly audiences during a season to date, drawing an average 2.6 million U.S. viewers, up 15 percent...

They insulted her looks. They made fun of her cue-card reading. But the haters can't say no one watched Lindsay Lohanon"Saturday Night Live. " The bedeviled ingenue gave NBC's comedy show the highest ratings for any regular episode this season, with an average of 7.4 million viewers tuning in, according to final figures from Nielsen released Thursday. (The Jan. 7 edition with Charles Barkley drew 10.1 million, but it followed a prime-time NFL playoff that inflated viewership.) The numbers should be a salve to Lohan after her hosting job was ripped by many critics and online commenters.